PAM

News

Decline in Iraq’s Southern Oil Exports

Iraq's crude oil exports from its southern ports fell to 3.426 million barrels per day (bpd) in February, the oil ministry said on Thursday, down from 3.49 bpd in January.

OPEC's second-largest producer's exports generated US$5.7 billion at a price of US$60.137 per barrel, oil ministry spokesman Asim Jihad said in a statement.

He attributed the drop in exports to February having three fewer days than January. No sales were made from the Kirkuk oilfields in the north, he said.

Kirkuk crude sales have been halted since Iraqi forces took back control of the oilfields from the Kurds in October in response to Kurdish independence referendum.

Kurdish forces took control of Kirkuk in 2014, when the Iraqi army collapsed in the face of Islamic State. The Kurdish move prevented the militants from seizing the region's oilfields.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Tuesday his government had agreed with Kurdish regional authorities to resume Kirkuk oil exports through Turkey's Ceyhan port soon but gave no precise timeline for restarting the flow.

A spokesman for Abadi told Reuters on Wednesday the agreement was "preliminary" but that the federal oil ministry and its regional counterpart still had to work out the technical details.